I spent an enjoyable eight hours at my second Great Lakes Writers’ Workshop yesterday. Alverno College’s Annual (24th this year) event has often been recommended to me, but it wasn’t until 2008 that I was able to attend. I wish I’d begun earlier.

Not only is Alverno blessed with a beautiful campus and quad, it is also home to some terrific people long associated with the writing and fine arts communities in southeastern Wisconsin. It is always a pleasure to reunite with them.

The schedule is simple and nicely dovetailed: a continental breakfast and keynote speaker begin the day, followed by a morning workshop (choice of four two-hour sessions), a tasty oriental chicken salad lunch and panel discussion, and ending with a second workshop (again, one of four two-hour choices). All for a spectacularly reasonable price.

I heartily recommended – and stated so on the evaluation form – that a 30- to 60- minute closing session to allow networking and a sort of informal question-and-answering would be a beneficial way to end the day. As it is now (and was last year), many folks fled exactly at 4PM – not allowing those of us whose session(s) went slightly over (with no complaint from me!) to find and meet others. I barely go to the bookseller’s table to pick up a book I’d eyed earlier in the day – the seller was gracious enough to unpack her boxes to find the book for me…but not interested in swapping for an RBE title.

After that, I ended the day in a twenty-minute reunion with Judy Bridges of Redbird Studio and Jo McReynolds-Blochowiak of the Telesis Institute, both of whom are hugely instrumental not only in the metro-Milwaukee writing world, but in the Great Lakes Writers’ Workshop itself…and in my writing life. Both were excited about RBE’s growth and future plans, and they loved the cover art and entire package of the Rage of the Behemoth proof I brought along. Both inquired as to my success with ‘The Write Side of the Road’ sessions I held at the Port Washington library in January-February-March, and all of us agreed it was time I spread my speaking wings and joined the presenters of such events as the one of the day.

I am always energized by being around either of these wonderful ladies and to have both of them encouraging me, excited for me, and endorsing me for future projects was exhilarating. And then I got home last night, ate a grilled dinner on the deck with my family, and just fell into exhaustion. It seems I’ve reached or am reaching a breaking point. Though I tried to go to bed at a reasonable hour (midnight), today I was extremely lethargic, stumbling to work, and basically dreading getting off of work (where I penned this) and returning home to the real work – either rejecting and editing for RBE or installing cabinets, building shelves, and tearing down/repairing drywall and insulation for my house and family. Both need to be done; both depress me right now.

I have learned in this past five or six weeks that I am at my best and most excited and alive in create mode. I love designing, creating, putting together, growing something from nothing to infancy to maturity. It’s the aftermath i don’t do too well with. Like the placentas at the real births of my daughters, they’re not too appealing to me.

Okay, so it’s not so bad as that. I couldn’t resist the melodramatic sensory overload. This fiasco with the release of RotB and delay in getting into Demons has really worn me out. I like being hands-on, involved with and in control of each stage of this publishing biz – but this is a time I would take full advantage of having employees with defined roles: editing, sales and promotion, distribution.

Ack. Enough of the whine. This post is about the wonderful writers’ conference I attended. It’s about my rekindled desire to write some of my own material again. Actually, that desire was re-lit a few weeks back when I penned a short story set in the world of my latest novel attempt in hopes of submitting to an anthology I have hopes of being in. My time to write is almost nil – though work lately has been slow enough to allow some scribbling. As I can’t use the Internet or my own laptop at work, can’t repair my home from there, nor sleep (all the things I need to do most), that leaves reading and writing. So I’ve accomplished some of both.

I hope to post at least once per week here on von D’s thoughts, to reestablish some consistency and connection with my (limited) followers. Not only does doing so enable me to further promote RBE, it solidifies my own web presence and begins to establish my platform, providing an identity for the fans of both RBE and myself to find and refer to. I plan to be busy.

In addition to building and promoting Rogue Blades Entertainment and expanding my public appearances/speaking with ‘The Write Side of the Road’ sessions, look for my book reviewing to return (hopefully to old levels as well), and for my own writing to increase. The itch is returned and with strong intentions on several pending anthologies and certain periodicals, my first fiction appearance in Coach’s Midnight Diner 2: The Back from the Dead Edition should be just the beginning.